I am interested in a HopMobile sim card. If I buy it from Europe I'll pay 60 Euros for the card (55 + 5 of shipping costs).
Do you think it's a good price?
Note that since the card will be sent from France I'll pay no taxes on it...

The Hop Abroad sim card has good tariffs, expecially for us Euripeans since now US$ is much weaker than Euro. The problem is the high activation cost! If you plan to use it quite a lot it's a good deal, otherwise, probably, United Mobile is cheaper...

I've been looking at the international prepaids and considering HOP as a complement to UM. In places like the US & India, where UM is expensive, HOP would at least be reasonable, particularly for incoming calls. I was hoping that Yackie would fill that role but it seems that isn't going to happen any time soon. Does someone have a better plan?

One reason I like Hop is the per-second billing, online access to your account, and the flat rates (.90 out, .35 in) everywhere, no "zones" to remember. The CS is pretty non-existent. Wish they had voicemail.

0.95 out + 0.20 setup fee to be exact - but still good in many countries expensive for other intn'l sims. Also Thuraya roaming.
Downsides are also: crazy rates to satphones $6/min and, what is much more important, non-functioning SMS receiving/sending....And many countries missing in the coverage, even in Europe...:(

I've had Hop for quite a while and agree that it's now a good backup to UM. I really miss SMS and voicemail (so I don't give out the number), and in Europe the rates are not great, but they are reliable for voice calls in a lot of places.

Next month I'll give them a test in Europe, where UM would be cheaper but I have a large Hop credit to burn off so I expect I'll be using them more than usual.

What is the chepeast rates tht people have found for calling Hop?

It depends from which country.

In this age of VOIP, the country does not mean that much. I'm running an Asterisks box. On it, I have accounts connected to the US, UK, and France. I have DIDs connected to it coming from the US, UK, Germany, and China (don't ask). I have unlimited calling into most landlines in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Israel, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Singapore, and many others. As my handle indicates, I am not in any of these countries.

For many of these issues, where you are doesn't really matter. In a way, that is the central purpose of this forum. To make cheap trans-national communication a reality for the masses.

Ok then.
One cheap option is to dial via a uk 0844 number. This call costs 4p/min if called within the UK.

The number is 08443992473. I have not tried it myself and cannot say anything about the quality.

If you have a cheap solution (at least at rates similar to BT) from dialing these numbers from outside the UK (besides voipfone) please let me know.

Skype rates Monaco mobiles with 5.5 cent/min - and Monaco KFOR with 18.1
If anybody tells me his hop number i can ring it up and see which rate is really applied.

German call by call providers start with 10ct/min - dont know if they would connect reliable.

Chris

The skype rate is without VAT.

ok. 6.3 ct with VAT... I forgot that because we load the SkypeOut with a US-account to save the 15%

but still cheaper than the other ones :)


Chris

Wll be in Monaco later this week. Though the Hop number is Monaco-based, the Hop website doesn't list a carrier in Monaco (oddly, the country is listed but no carrier). Does it not work in its "home" country? Probably doesn't matter since the place is so small I can probably pick up France and anyhow I have UM and other choices, but I am curious if anyone knows.

The 'home' country for HopMobile is not Monaco but Ghana.

Regarding coverage in Monaco, it is fully covered by all french networks so you should be able to roam just fine.

Yes, Hop uses Monaco numbers but Ghana's Areeba provides roaming agreements for Hop (this is probably the reason of its good coverage in Africa).
AFAIK Monaco Telecom doesn't have coverage in its own country but has its towers in UN-governed Serbian province of Kosovo - this is Monaco KFOR.
AFAIR Monaco Telecom is service provider also somewhere in Africa (and some mobile African networks may have +377 country code, too)